That One Time I Was Super Edgy and Created an Insurgence
by hitmanmonlee
Summary: Rewrite of my super edgy middle school fanfiction! Leon Killroy is an unhappy child of Athena. Too bad he puts into motion events that will divide Camp Half Blood forever.


** Helloooo everyone~ I'm getting back into the saddle of writing fanfiction again after not writing or publishing anything for years. This is a post TLO fan fiction with elements from THO, but that won't be the main focus. It's actually a rewrite of a fanfic I wrote a long time ago, but I doubt any of you have read it. When I wrote the first version of this story, it was a way of digesting my criticism of the first series and my growing criticism of the new series in my tiny middle school mind. Now that I'm older and more mature, I can hesitantly say that I can fully form my criticism. **

** You'll notice that this story is very very edgy, and yeah it's a rewrite of a story I wrote in middle school. If you want to know how the original fic was, just imagine this story but half the length and twice the edge. **

** Chapter 1**

_Leon_

You ever have to stop yourself when you begin feel the complete futility of existence? That one day, all we will be is just dust, so everything is arguable pointless? Yeah I do. But what do we say to an existential crisis? Not today! Being a demigod, in a world of actual immortal gods and fates that control out existence, that feeling is acute. While Lovecraft was a genuine weirdo, he was onto something. Knowledge of the unknown, things that should not be known, yada yada yada. The Greek Gods are real and they control our lives. Well, they probably control my life a lot more than your life. I'm Leon.

I'm a son of Athena, I'm 17 years old, and I go to a camp for demigods. Camp Half Blood. You probably don't know about us, unless you yourself are a demigod, so eh. We just fought a huge war with the Titans. Lost a lot of good men and woman. But, a lot of things are changing around here. The camp has been under construction for weeks now, and it's most likely going to continue thought the school year while I'm back in high school. Oof, high school, now that's an real extrasencal crisis. I'm not looking forward to dealing with all that bull when I came close to dying several times. I saved your mortal world, Mr. Whatever, Hamlet is an edgy teenager anyway. Go get yourself to a nunnery. Besides, school sucks. It makes my head hurt, and not just because I have ADD and Dyslexsia. Dyslezsisa Dyslexia. There we go.

What was I talking about? Yeah ADD and Dyslexia. I know, how original, I go off topic and forget what I was writing about after I say I have ADD. School is painful. I never got the appeal. Even nerds like Malcolm and Annabeth can't possibly like school and learning as much as they say say they do. It's not humanly possible, or demigodly possible. Hur Hur.

But yeah it's pretty ironic the way I turned out. Not liking school and learning and all that good child of Athena stuff. Like, being claimed was most likely the worst possible thing that happened to me. It was a few years ago, so all I can remember is vaguely hopping that I the son of some minor god so that I could do what I really wanted.

What do I want? I'll keep that a secret.

But no, I was a Child of Athena, goddess of wisdom. I mean, it's not that bad. I would much rather be a child of Athena then a child of Hephaestus or something. Gods, they are so obnoxious. You see, it all starts when the parents get a book called "how stuff works", then they feel like hot stuff because they understand how a coffee maker works, and then…

You get the idea. It really wasn't a shock when I was claimed. I mean, I fit right in. (Long) Blond hair, gray eyes, short build. I'm pretty buff because I work out, but I'm your standard run of the mill son of Athena, appearance wise. Intellectually, not as much.

So yeah, the futility of man. Let's unpack that.

One recurring gag, you see its funny and witty because what I'm about to talk about isn't funny at all, is that I almost died several times a month ago. I can count several times I almost died before this summer on account of being a demigod, but this summer saw a serious and ridiculous increases in both danger level and frequency. There was that time I almost got shot, luckily the arrow just grazed me. There were all the sword fights, I really wish I had an invisible hat to get out of those. Oh yeah, and there was that giant tornado of doom that almost blew me into a concrete wall or into the disgusting Hudson river. And yeah I know Percy cleaned it with his new demigod powers or whatever, but I absolutely detest getting wet. I can't even remember the last time I voluntarily got into water that wasn't taking a shower.

And I kept on thinking, each time after I almost died, what would happen? We lost a lot of people, but I don't feel any… different. We had the funeral, letters were sent, the camp feels a little spare now but…

I probably sound like a terrible person right now. I didn't lose anyone that close to me. Nobody wants to hang out with the loner son of Athena very much. Would my dad be sad if I died? He's some big smart professor on ancient Greek chamber pots or whatever, I haven't seen him in a year or so. I go to a boarding school in Jersy, but that's not really important. I imagine that my mom would be sad, but I mean, she must have had thousands of kids over the centuries, and they all die. Besides, I'm not exactly on her radar. I do have a step mom, but I don't really know what extent that she knows that I exist. She's in real estate though.

She did come visit me once, I recall. I was 15. She told me to go to Camp Half Blood. I did what I was told. My Goddess mom, not my step mom.

That really was my thought process. I'm not a nerd like my half siblings, but for me, fitting the existence of well, god, that being a divine all knowing creator, be it one or twelve, with what we know about the world, is kind of straight foreword. Because we know so much about how the world works, and we have undeniable proof that the gods exist, therefor, the gods must exist in some way that cannot be currently explained, operating outside the real of logic.

But, something is bothering me about that. You know what people believed a long time ago? That maggots came from meat. They called it Spontaneous Conception, or something, I'm not a nerd. So like, because maggots come from beef, and there was no evidence that there was some other source of the maggots than the meat, maggots must arise from meat. But then some guy did an experiment that proved that flies laid eggs and that the eggs became maggots. But, did knowing that flies lay eggs impact the behavior of flies? No, not at all. Even though humans thought that maggots come from meat and not flies, the flies continued to do their thing, their thing being laying eggs on meat, because they don't care what humans thing. Just because we can't explain a phenomenon doesn't mean that it doesn't exist.

You know now that I think about it, there were most likely several signifigently less gross ways to explain that.

What I'm trying to wrap up in a nice little bow here is that there are three truths to my life right now.

The gods control my life that is almost entity pointless and futile, while their life is immortal and powerful.

Just because I can't explain why or how the gods do what they do, it does not mean that it's impossible to understand.

I'm not like other nerds **turns baseball cap backwards**

Alright that last one was super lame. But three points always sound better than two. So, now what? Why do I start this story here? Because I'm leaving camp tonight. And I'm not coming back. It's not exactly running away if I make my intent perfectly clear. I've been hoarding Den-nar-oss for a few summers, I think the exchange rate is pretty good right now; I can afford rent for a couple months until boarding school starts again. I have a mortal half brother; maybe I can stay with him for a while. And no, he does not write stupid phony Hollywood movie scripts and this is not a story about the tragedy of the youth. Catcher in the Rye. That's the joke. You see, if you just mention something in text, it's a reference and that sucks. BUT if you say something in the text that's thematically relevant, it's an allusion and it's ten times classier.

By the way, I've been siting on my bed in the currently vacant Athena Cabin, contemplating all of this. Probably should have mentioned that earlier in this… thingy when it was more relevant, but WHATEVER. I'm a lose cannon. Charaization, yo.

It's about… 5:45. Dinner should be called soon. I'm going to leave after dinner. Or maybe I should skip dinner. Just go practice. Yeah I'm going to go practice now.

I grab my things and make my way across the cabin… area. There are several campers out swimming (eww), and I make my way to the combat practice area in little time. There are three other half bloods there, but I give them no mind. I throw down my bag, and take out my saber.

Hell (or hades, but "names" and "in vain" don't jive with the gods) yeah, fencing. Fencing rocks. I love fencing. I give my Saber a few warm up slices in the air before I do my normal routine of running, pull-ups and sit-ups to get a good sweat on. I need to be a nimble machine. Light on my feet. Agile. Like a deadly ballet dancer. Move like a butterfly, sting like a scorpion. Be like water, all that good stuff. By the time I start my movements, I'm soaked in sweat and everyone else has left. I practice my thrust, my pare, by lunges, everything. I slaughter the test dummies. I eviscerate the sandbags. I didn't even notice the other person arriving until they said.

"Ah-hem".

It's Annabeth.

I point my Saber at her. "I think you mean En Guard." I say with a grin.

"You were absent for dinner." She said in her slightly naggy voice.

"Eh, I wasn't hungry." I replied. "Is mom annoyed at me again? I'll throw a marshmallow into the fire tonight for her."

"Very funny, but yes." Annabeth said. "I don't want to say this again but we need to be thankful. It was though their good favor that we won. And it's not just you, the entire camp."

"How about they are thankful for us for saving their immortal asses." I said, continuing to practice. "Besides, when was the last time Mom ever talked to me? And you don't have to pull that "its not just you" line."

Annabeth put her hands on her hips. "You've been asking stuff like that a lot lately."

"Well it's been on my mind, that's what people do, Annabeth. So how's being the architect of Olympus coming along?" I asked. Her demeanor did not change, but something in her eyes did. A bright spark. She began gushing about some Auqua Duck she was drawing, honestly my eyes glaze over and my head starts to hurt whenever Annabeth talks about flying butt-traces or post gothic neo Victorian whatever.

"-Well, you'll have to send me a post card because I'm leaving." I said abruptly, putting my sword away.

"and then- what?" Annabeth said. "Okay then. See you tomorrow-"

"I mean camp. I'm leaving camp." I clarified.

Annabeth paused. "You know the pickup date isn't for a few weeks."

"Well, I'm leaving more than the camp. I'm leaving the entire demigod thing." I elaborated. "I'm going back to school. Goanna get into a good collage. Really make something of myself."

"You can't just do that…" Annabeth said. "What about monsters, what about your training? You need to protect yourself."

"Well I've done that." I said, patting my bag. "I got a Hephaestus kid to whip me up a monster killing one of these. It's in my stuff. That I packed up. Because I'm leaving."

"You're pretty dense, you sure we're related?" Annabeth laughed.

"Yeah, well, you got me there. Anyway, I'm just kidding about the post card. I'm going no contact. I might as well forget everything about this place." I said, gesturing.

Annabeth crossed her arms. "Leon, you can't be serious."

I nodded. "I can be. No more Gods for me. Now, excuse me."

"Wait, wait, wait." Annabeth said. "You can't just do that."

"Yeah, I can" I said walking past her. "I don't care about the gods, or rather, I care about them as much as they care about me, or something." I turned around and wiggled my fingers all esoterically before making my way up to the lake. Annabeth followed behind me. "I'm a free demigod."

And for a moment, the emptiness inside me vanished. Yeah, I was really doing this.

Then my mom decided to visit.

My god mom, not my step mom. It would be pretty weird if my step mom showed up.

There wasn't much, a big flash of white light, a loud crack, and there was my mom, all godly and such, decked out in a white dress, looking pissed as all hell.

Annabeth bowed, but I didn't really know what to do with myself.

"Hey… mother." I said. The flash had caught the attention of several other demigods.

"Leon Killroy." She said, with a voice as cool as ice (yay basic metaphor, go me). "Are you aware of the ramification of your statement?"

"I mean, kidna." I said, scratching the back of my neck.

"Luke Castelin said something of the sort, and look where his path went." Athena said. "It would be unwise to continue his legacy."

"Welll I'm just trying to get some… breathing room. Away from all this." I gestured. "I mean, to be honest, Luke wasn't that wise too. I mean, he kind of got a cat to watch his fish, if ya get what I mean."

There was a quiet fire in my mom's eyes. "Your implications are damming, if I hadn't birthed you from my own head, you would be a pile of ash for your tomfoolery."

"Well." I paused. "What I'm saying is that Luke went about it in the wrong way. I mean, Chronos was a bad guy. A bad Titan. He was a Bad Titan. None of them were particularly good, ya know, but… look all I want is to get away. Forget I exist for a lifetime, that's like, a Tuesday morning for you, right? Nothing ever happens on a Tuesday anyway."

Athena said nothing, but her anger was smoldering inside her eyes like burning hot coals. I stole glances at the now growing crowed of demigods.

"You humble us with your presence, Lady Athena." Chiron said, bowing, breaking the silence in the process.

"I have arrived to end an insurrection." Athena announced. "From my own flesh and blood."

"I'm leaving Camp Half Blood and I want nothing to do with the gods." I announced. "And you can't stop me."

"Your arrogance is astounding and unbecoming of a child of mine." Athena said. "Or did I claim you by mistake? If I could not remember your father, your behavior makes you a better son of Aries than of mine."

"Who really cares anymore?" I said. "Son of Athena, Son of Aries… I'm not smart, or really that wise, and I suck at plans. I've gotten my ass kicked at Connect 4 by a twelve year old. What business do I have being your son?"

The crowd was dead silent.

"So that is what you seek? Attention though self-deprecation? " Athena asked. "Pathetic. Many a hero's flaw is hubris, maybe you should be glad you were blessed, and it passed you by. Regardless, your little plea for anonymity from the gods is pointless, as I have proved by my premise here. Goodbye, Leon Killroy" She began to glow.

"Hey Athena!" I yelled. "I have one more thing to say!"

Athena stopped. "A change of heart?"

"So! How good are you with." I paused for dramatic affect. "The blade?" Annabeth gave me a look that would have killed a lesser man.

"I beg your pardon?" Athena asked. "The goddess of wisdom does not engage in shows of warfare."

"It's not warfare, it's a sport." I corrected my mother. "It's called Fencing, are you any good at it?"

"My skill surpasses any mortal." Athena said in a low voice. "That should be obvious."

"Well, you can't be better than me." I said, taking out my Saber. "I bet I could best you in a fair fight."

"Leon!" Chiron yelled but I continued.

"So here's the deal." I continued. "We have an honest match. Best two out of three. No godly tricks. If you win, I stay here and under your thumb. If I win, I get to leave. Plus… if I win, and you go back on your word, as you do, the gods can never, ever affect me again. Or my friends and family."

Athena got that look in her eyes, the "I'm incredibly PO'ed but I'm not going to yell" look. Annabeth has it too.

"Your wager is of the upmost tomfoolery, unparalleled by anything I have-"

"Oh, but you see, Athena, it's not a wager." I said. "Because there's no luck involved. It's all about skill. And besides." I paused. "I know you have a thing for competition. Don't you want to whip this smug grin off my face."

"I ought to smite you on the spot for your tongue, Leon." Athena said, her words dripping with venom. "To suggest that you-"

"I won't suggest anything, Athena" I replied. "It's just a fair match between me and you. The only thing you have to loose is your ego. I mean, if you wanted to, you could snap your fingers and give me two left feet and thumbs for fingers. But if you did that, well, it means you could never beat me in a fair fight."

For a second, she did nothing. There was a powerful buzz in the air, before she inhaled and exhaled. "As you wish, son." Athena declared. "On the dawn of the morrow." She began to glow, and we did the smart thing and shielded out eyes from such immortal magnificence.

There was a pause. Then the entire camp erupted into a cacophonous mass of screaming. People were yelling at me, punches were thrown, the looks that Chiron and Annabeth gave me, oof, I will never forget. The air was filled with such powerful excitement and dread.

"LEON!" Chiron yelled. "LEON! EVERYONE, BACK TO YOUR CABINS!" Chiron lifted me up and placed me on his back.

"You and I. Talk now." He said.

"So I can use the fencing equipment, right?" I asked when he sat me down in the big house study. He gave me a look that could kill a Titan. I wonder if Chiron ever gets around to reading all these books he has in here. I know I wouldn't. I wonder if my dad still has my movie collection at his house.

"You'll be lucky to keep your life if you beg at your mother's knees to excuse your gross disrespect and blasphemy." He said. "That's my advice, and I sincerely hope you take it to heart. What you did was extremely foolish of you, Leon."

"Yeah, but hey." I said, shrugging. "It's only awkward if I loose, and I might win.

Chiron sighed, and for a second, he reminded me of my dad. "Leon, I know you're upset. These last few years have been tough for a demigod. But it's inappropriate to take that anger out on the gods."

"Isn't that true of every… few years?" I said. Chiron gave me a warm smile.

"Yes, but Percy has changed all that. We are addressing the problem that got us here in the first place. We just need more time. You need to have faith that life can change, Leon." Chiron said. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. Percy Jackson opened it up and walked in with a purpose. He turned to me.

"You can't do this, Leon." He said, wasting no time.

"Well, I'm doing it, aren't I?" I replied. "Besides, it takes two to tango. Athena accepted my offer."

"You can't win. You're not even the best swordsman in camp. Not by a long shot." Percy explained. "To say that you can beat a god… it's…"

"Very unwise." Chiron finished. "To say the least."

"While it's true that I don't have…. Thick skin from the Styx or the best footwork… I have something else." I said. "I'm going to win. I can feel it."

"Yeah I know that was kind lame." I continued. "But I've been practicing for years. I can really kick ass. And you can't stop me. Your best chance would be to stop Athena, but I don't think that's a possibility". I said, getting up. "And that's that."

"It's not wise for a moral to challenge the gods, Leon, regardless of their skill." Chiron said. "Just ask the fates what becomes of those who do."

"How about you ask me about that tomorrow?" I said. I walked out of the room, past a small crowd of campers who were listing at the door. The camp had hardly taken Chiron's advice to heart. The camp was alive with buzz, practically everyone was out and about. I sat on the porch of the Big House, in the cold late summer air.

Now that I think about it, I'm kind of hungry. But hunger gives me that edge. I take my leisurely walk to the Hephaestus cabin my man is outside, fiddling with a pile of scrap metal.

"Jose!" I say. "My man!"

Jose is a spry little 14 year old, with dirty blond hair and brown eyes. He's pretty cool; We play Minecraft every once in while together. He looks up from his little project.

"Leon!" He says. "That was so cool!"

We exchange high fives. "Yes, I know, I know. So you know I'm going to need that Saber… like, now."

He nodded. "I'm almost done, I just need-"

"I'm sorry, but you don't have any more time." I explained. "I need it now."

Jose groaned. "I'm sorry but it's… unfinished."

"It's cool, do you have it?" I asked. He nodded.

"Hell yeah I do, follow me to the forge!" He said.

"You know!" He explained as we walked. "I know you said you wanted just a normal Saber-"

"I explicitly said that." I said. "Only an Saber. Made of Celestial Bronze. Nothing more."

"Yes, but it was too easy. Such a small weapon, I wanted… a challenge." He explained. "I think you'll be excited."

"Jose!" I replied. "I just need it to kill monsters, not tell me the air pressure or whatever."

Jose grinned from ear to ear. "You'll be impressed, I can guarantee it." We entered the forge, and from the long rack of bows, shields, swords, and arrows, he retrieved a long, skinny blade of gold bronze with a half dome hand guard and a skinny handle. I gave it a twirl.

"The balance is good." I say.

"That's not all." Jose giggles. "There's hardly any room for internal equipment, so I had some… friends create some enchantments."

"Magic?" I asked. "That's not very Hephaestus of you."

"Anyway, the hilt is inscribed on an almost microscopic level with passages from one of the oldest Greek accounts of creation. It's actually a Greek translation of a text that's far older than the Greeks at the time of translation, but my friends assumed me it will all still work."

"And what will that do?" I asked.

"Well fist, the text is apparently the first hand account of some kind of god, talking about "I am the venom of this earth, from the depths I rise, and to the depths I shall return with all of creation." Very edgy, if you ask me." Jose explained.

"Brutal." I said, turning the blade over. "So what does that mean for me?"

"Well, the blade is… cursed." Jose said.

"Excuse me?"

"Well cursed is… a harsh term. My friends prefer the term "historically significant". He told me that everything cut by it will.. Undo itself."

"Sounds vague." I said, giving it a practice swing. "And you just… did that? With no consequence? It sounds like a very powerful item. Can't you give me a weapon that give my foes deliberating back pain?"

Jose scratched his back. "Well…. The scroll was very old; it's debatable what power it really has now that the… other gods are in power. And it could have all been a hoax. Besides, between the subpar enchantment equipment we had, and the imperfect engraving equipment I had… its debatable how powerful the curse really is."

"So what you're saying is, you're not sure if it even works." I said.

"No, No, it-"

"It's fine." I smiled. "All I need is a saber. I'll pay you back in the morning, before I leave. Thank you, Jose."

Miraculously, I actually fell asleep that night, but it was restless sleep. I know that some demigods have terrible dreams, but mine are always more surreal than prophetic. But one time I dreamed my dad was getting me an Xbox and then that happened, so that was cool.

So like, I was in some kind of mall. A shopping mall, not like a museum mall, but that would be cool too. But it was totally empty. And when I say empty, I don't mean that nobody was there, I mean like, all the storefronts were vacant, and there was not a signal person there. But there was still music in the mall. A weird, mellow sound that echoed though the ornate garnet halls and reverbed off the walls. I think I was floating, also? Like I was in a bubble. But I was not in a bubble, it just sounded like I was.

There was some kind of deep rumbling from bellow. Like, deep, deep bellow the mall. Not like, some asshole in his 2003 Honda Civic showing off, I mean, an earthquake a hundred miles away. And, I needed to see what was there. I needed to know. Like an itch that needed to be scratched or un-popped bubble wrap. The stairwell was in terrible condition, full of graffiti. It went down, down, down. Lower than logically possible, it felt like houers before I finally got to the bottom. I think it was full of water? But it was hard to tell. The graffiti had transformed into ancient Greek inscriptions. The music had become some sort of a-melodic tone, more like groaning and moaning rather than music.

A single door was at the bottom. I opened it.

It opened to a large, empty parking garage (with no cars in it, par for the course), that seemed to get longer and longer as I walked down it. Cracks began to form in the concrete, and that gave way to gravel, and then stone, until I was walking though a cave that opened up into a huge, huge, cavern made of oily rock. Because it was a dream, I floated down to the bottom.

The bottom of the cavern was filled with sharp, flat black rocks. I would imagine that they would slice my feet to ribbons if I weren't in a dream. There was Greek words inscribed on them, but it was some kind of old dialect, I knew what they said but it was incomprehensible to understand. In the center of the cavern was a large ravine, so deep and black that it was impossible to see the bottom.

There was something… down there. The feeling deep in my stomach told me it was true as I looked over the edge. The a-melodic moans were becoming louder and louder. But… something happened.

They began to form words, words that were spoken in a harsh, raged voice, in a tone that sounded like the speaker was struggled to speak. No, it was struggling to form words.

"Host…." It moaned. "Host."

I said nothing.

"You are not….it." The voice continued. "Yet… this is no loss. You will engender my return…"

"Fuck off." I mumbled.

"Try as you will." It moaned. "But… I shall return."

"Yeah, I'm not falling for that again." I said. "We kicked your ass once and we will do it again."

Then, the thing in the pit laughed.

"I am not the one you call a Titan." It hissed. "They were fools to forsake me. The gods were bigger fools for not paying their dues. But you… you will be my herald."

"I don't know if you're paying attention to what's happening." I said. "But I'm not too keen on the god thing. I don't want what you are selling."

The… thing down there continued to laugh, and laugh, but with… something else in it's voice. Something that made me feel indescribable fear and dread that made me feel like a little kid showing my dad another failed report card. "Such a stubborn mortal. That is why you are most useful. I will not interfere… for now. But, Leon Killroy, you do have my blessing."

"Yeah, fuck you too." I said, kicking down a stone to the inky depths.

Then, I woke up. The immediate contrast been the dark depths of the worst shopping in existence and the bright summer sun scared the hell out of me, but the tight feeling in my tummy worsened when I realized.

Oh yeah, I'm going to fight my mom

Fuck.


End file.
